WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden didn't mean to get out in front of the president on same-sex marriage when he publicly embraced the issue earlier this week, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

"The President has been the leader on this issue from day one and the Vice President never intended to distract from that," Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said in a statement to The Huffington Post.

Biden made a splash on Sunday by saying he supported marriage equality during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." Days later, after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was grilled by reporters on whether the president was still "evolving" on the issue, Obama announced in an interview with ABC that he, too, supports gay marriage.

Biden reportedly apologized to Obama hours ahead of that interview. "The vice president expressed remorse, regret," a person familiar with their exchange told Yahoo News on Thursday. The president responded by telling Biden that he understood his prior comments had come "from the heart."